And here I was thinking my girls hadn't started laying yet.

[Livinzoo]

I put a golf ball in one of the nest boxes and the next day it was sitting on the back edge. Something tried to take it but the ball was too big to fit between the nest box and the wall. You can see teeth marks on the ball.

So I think I have rats. I have a hav-a-heart trap I'll be setting up in the morning. Lets see what I can catch.

 

[Hobbley_Farm]

once you have a rat in a have a heart...what do you do?

 

[Jessika]

Good luck!

 

[Livinzoo]

Well 2 options. Drown them or set them free elsewhere.

I had one caught this morning and it was lucky I was running late for work. Dropped it off 5 miles away near some woods.

 

[cjeanean]

with rats I prefer the drowning method...my uncle used a HAH trap for a mouse once, and for some reason the mouse had some sort of food coloring on it. Anyways, he goes out, walks to the edge of the field, and lets this mouse go. He gets back to the door and sure enough a little mouse with the same colored splotches on him is nosing its way into a hole in the door casement....the darn thing beat him back to the house...Drowning is a decently quick alternative...

 

[pokey]

so mice and rats have a homeing instinct? i found out by accident my boston terrier will go nuts trying to dig up a rat.she weighs 31 lbs and is a digging machine!!! we have to be careful she doesn't get bitten, but she won't give up until you phsically remove her. now if i could just train her to find money buried in the ground i'd be on to something!

 

[cmom]

Decon, where your other animals can't get to it. Another post on another thread suggested sticky traps, baited and where you other pets can't get to it.

 

[Katy]

I have a pack rat I can't catch that keeps stealing the golf balls out of the nests.

 

[Livinzoo]

well 2 rats down and 3 traps set tonight. Wonder what I will see in the morning.

I don't like poison cause if any animal eats the dead rat they get a dose of poison too.